Forest Days: A Romance of Old Times
together, 'twould well-nigh break my heart to see her under other
circumstances."
Thus saying, he wrung the old man's hand, and strode towards the door,
but turning for an instant before he quitted the chamber, he saw that
the Earl stood fixed in the midst of the hall, with a hesitating air;
and he added, aloud, "You will not fail, my lord!"
"No, no," replied the Earl, "I will meet you at the hour you
named.--Fear not, I will not fail."
There was a wide landing-place between the top of the stairs and the
door of the hall; and Hugh de Monthermer found it crowded with
gentlemen belonging to Henry's court. The moment he appeared, Sir Guy
de Margan advanced towards him, saying, "Lord Hugh de Monthermer, I am
commanded by the King----"
But Hugh interrupted his address, frowning upon him sternly, "To summon
me to his majesty's presence!" he said. "I go thither, at once, sir,
and that is enough!--Take care, Sir Guy de Margan!" he added, seeing
him still approaching him; "remember, I am not fond of your close
presence!"--and he brought the hilt of his long sword nearer to his
right hand, striding onward to the top of the staircase, as he did so;
while the gentlemen who occupied the landing, not exactly liking the
expression of his countenance, made way for him on either side, and Guy
de Margan bit his lip with an angry frown, not daring to approach too
closely.
The young nobleman's horse, and the attendants who had accompanied him,
were ready in the court; and springing into the saddle, without giving
the slightest attention to those who followed, he shook his bridle
rein, and galloped on towards Nottingham. The others came after at full
speed: and both parties entered the city, and passed the gates of the
castle almost at the same moment. Dismounting from his horse, Hugh
proceeded at once towards the royal apartments, leaving several of the
pages and attendants behind him, unquestioned, on his way. In the
ante-room of the audience chamber he met William de Valence, for the
time one of the prime favourites of the Monarch; and stopping him, he
asked, "Can I speak with his Majesty, my Lord of Pembroke? I find I
have been accused wrongfully, and must clear myself."
"His Grace expects your lordship," answered the Earl, with an icy look;
"but he expects to see you in custody."
"There was no need, sir," replied Hugh; "I fear not to meet my King,
and never need force to make me face my foes. Will you bring me to the
presence--that is all I require."
"Follow me, then," said the Earl; and opening the door, he announced
the arrival of the young knight to Henry, who immediately ordered him
to be brought in.
The Monarch was seated near a table, with the Lord Mortimer standing by
him. They were apparently jesting upon some subject, for both were
smiling when Hugh de Monthermer entered; but the moment the weak and
tyrannical Sovereign's eyes fell upon him, an angry scowl came upon his
countenance, which brought King John strongly back to the minds of
those who remembered that feeble and cold-blooded Prince.
"So, sir," said Henry, "you have come of your accord, to meet the
reward of your high merits!"
"I come, your Grace," replied Hugh, bowing low, "to meet my accusers in
your royal presence, and to give them the lie in their teeth, if they
dare to charge me with any act contrary to my allegiance or my duty."
"What!" said the King--"was consorting with De Montfort, was fighting
at Evesham, not contrary to your allegiance?"
"Oh! my lord," answered Hugh, "if the charge goes as far back as that,
I must plead both your Grace's special pardon, and your general amnesty
to all who laid down their arms, made submission, and offended not
again!"
"But you have offended again," exclaimed the King; "that is the chief
charge against you."
"And whoever does make it," replied Hugh de Monthermer, "is a false and
perjured traitor, and I will prove it upon him, either by investigation
before your Majesty, or by wager of battle--my body against his, with
God for the judge."
"Nay--nay, sir," said Henry, "we know your strength and skill in arms
right well; and this is not a case where we will trust plain justice to
be turned from its course by a strong arm and a bold but perverse
heart. We ourselves will be your accuser, with whom there can be no
wager of battle; and those we call to prove your crime shall be but
witnesses."
"My lord, that cannot be," replied Hugh, boldly. "My King will never be
judge and accuser, both in one."
"Then you shall have other judges," cried the Monarch; "your peers
shall judge you. But, if you be truly innocent, you will not scruple
now to answer at once the charges made against you."
"It is for that, I come," replied the young knight. "Unprepared, not
knowing what these charges are, I come to meet them as I may. I pray
you, let me hear them."
While he and the King had been speaking, a number of new faces had
appeared in the audience chamber, comprising all those who had followed
the young nobleman from Lindwell; and Henry, running his eye over them,
exclaimed--"Stand forth, Guy de Margan--and you, Hugh Fitzhugh--and
you, Sir William Geary, come near also, and say of what you accuse Lord
Hugh de Monthermer."
"'Faith, sire," replied Sir William Geary, with his usual sarcastic
grin, "I accuse the noble knight of nothing. I was at the pass of arms
at Northampton, my lord, when he unhorsed the four best lances in the
field. Now, I never was particularly strong in the knees, and,
moreover, am getting somewhat rusty with years; so God forbid that I
should accuse any man who talks of the wager of battle. When I heard
it, I trembled almost as much as Sir Guy de Margan here."
"It is false! I trembled not!" exclaimed Sir Guy.
"True--true," answered the other, "you only shook, and looked sickly."
"Sir William Geary," cried the King, "this is no jesting matter! Speak
what it was you told me that you saw."
"I saw a fat monk," replied Sir William Geary, whose inclination for a
joke could hardly be restrained--"a jolly monk as ever my eyes rested
upon, and this fat monk, sire," he continued, more seriously, seeing
that the King was becoming angry, "stopped, and asked his way to the
apartments of the noble lord. He jested as wittily with Sir Harry Grey
as a court fool does with a thick-headed country lad; but when he had
gone on his way, Sir Guy de Margan here, a very serious and reputable
youth, as your Majesty knows, told me, in mysterious secrecy, that the
friar was a very treacherous piece of fat indeed--a traitor's
messenger--a go-between of rebels--a personage whom he had himself
known with Sir William Lemwood and the rest, in the marches of Wales.
So, inviting him sweetly into my chamber, we two watched together for
the monk's going forth from this noble lord's apartments which was not
for more than an hour. In the meanwhile, pious Sir Guy entertained me
with his shrewd suspicions, of how the monk and the valiant knight were
hatching treason together, which, as you know, sire, is a cockatrice's
egg, laid by male fowls, and hatched by dragons looking at it. A
very pretty allegory of a conspiracy, if we did but read fools for
fowls--that by the way; but to return to my tale:--the monk at length
appeared in the courtyard again, and shortly after the Lord Hugh de
Monthermer, him following. Thereupon; one of those irresistible
inclinations which set the legs in motion, whether man will or not,
seized upon me and good Sir Guy; and drawn as if by that rock of
adamant on which the Earl is fixed, we pursued, without power of
resistance, the path of knight and friar. Just at the gate of the city
we found our ascetic friend mounted on a mule, and holding a horse for
his knightly acquaintance, on which we saw the gallant Lord spring, and
after that they rode away together. This is all I have to say, sire,
and what I have said is true; but far be it from me to take any
accusation against a knight who can squeeze a horse to death between
his two knees, or stop a charger in full course by catching hold of an
iron ring, and grasping the beast with his two legs."
"What have you to answer, sir?" demanded the King, turning to Hugh.
"Simply that I saw a monk yesterday, sire," replied the young nobleman,
"and that he stayed with me nearly an hour, talking much of venison,
and somewhat of hunting. He may, from his language, have committed the
crime of taking a fat buck when he had no right to do so; but, by my
faith, that is the only treason I should suspect him of, and not one
word did he utter in my presence, either about risings, rebellions, or
aught else that could move your royal displeasure."
"Ha! what say you to this, Sir Guy de Margan?" asked the King. "Tell
us, who is this friar? Is he a rebel, or is he not?"
"Notoriously so, my lord," replied Guy de Margan. "I found him with
Lemwood and the other traitors, to whom you, sire, sent me for the
purpose of negotiation; and it would seem that he had come to comfort
them with promises of assistance from the North."
"But yet that does not prove," said Mortimer, "that the Lord Hugh held
any treasonable converse with him. His business with that good lord
might have been of a very simple kind."
Malevolent injustice becomes most dangerous when it assumes the garb of
equity; and Mortimer, who knew the whole that was to come, only assumed
the style of an impartial judge, that his after persecution of the
young nobleman might seem dictated by a sense of justice.
"It might have been so, indeed," replied Guy de Margan, "had it but
been a visit from the friar to my Lord of Monthermer; but their setting
forth together would seem strange; and the secrecy observed in the monk
quitting the castle first, and the knight following at a little
distance, renders it more strange still. Perhaps Lord Hugh will
condescend to explain why he went, and where."
"Methinks," answered Hugh, "that the honourable spies who crept after
my footsteps from the castle to the town gate, might have carried their
inquiries a little farther, when they would have saved the necessity of
such questions here."
"In regard to one point," said Hugh Fitzhugh, a large, burly Norman
gentleman--"in regard to one point, I, at least, can give some
explanation. What he went for I can but divine, but where he went I
know right well. He rode out with all speed to the forest, for I saw
him there with this same monk they mention. The truth is, I had
somewhat missed my way; and coming through some of the by-paths of the
wood, I suddenly chanced upon a party of five persons in deep and
earnest conversation. Three of them had vizards on their faces, too,
and the two that were unmasked were Hugh de Monthermer and the friar we
have heard of. Now, my lord the King, unless he explain that, we have
no explanation at all. But your wisdom will judge."
"Let him explain, if he will," said the King, "or rather, if he can. I
doubt it much; but I am willing to hear."
"My lord," replied Hugh de Monthermer, "for once in their lives these
noble gentlemen have told the truth: I did go out after the priest; I
did accompany him into the forest; I did meet three men there--but with
no evil purpose; nor did one word transpire which any man could call
treason."
"Who were the men you went to see?" demanded the King.
"Nay, sire," replied Hugh, "you must forgive me, if I give not their
names. My accusers, if they charge me with crime, must show that I have
been guilty of it. Now no such thing is even attempted to be proved.
All that they assert is, that I spoke with a friar, rode out with a
friar, and was seen conversing with three unknown persons in Sherwood.
If this be held as treason, God defend the innocent!"
"But, my good lord," said Mortimer, to whom the King turned his eyes,